I am a straight up 4C gal. There is no way to try to otherwise describe my hair. My tightly curled hair that refuses to take form in any other shape unless God forbid I try to use a relaxer again. But I love my hair, I seriously mean that I LOVE MY HAIR. What a sad form of declaration you maybe thinking right now, but what is actually sadder was that it took me over 20 years to reach this stage. Alas, to really accept natural hair was a battle in itself, but then I had to deal with an extra layer of complexity was formed when there was the classification of different hair types. I get why it exists as it would simply be lazy to assume that all afro hair is the same, but what has insidiously occurred over the recent years is that hair that has looser curls and when long has the tendency to easily sit on the shoulders and beyond (broadly speaking 4A/4B hair) is perceived to be better or more manageable than hair which has tighter curls, or no real curl pattern which just grows upwards no matter the hair length – my beloved 4c hair. A very good post which helps to explain the afro hair classifcation can be found on Black Girl Long Hair to all my non-afro hair readers!
It is interesting that nearly every other afro hair vlogger seems to have 4B hair. Who knows, maybe 4C women are not so bothered? However, I strongly believe that it is to do with the fact that women aren’t interested in understanding 4C hair, but would much prefer watching hair of the looser variation. Don’t get me wrong, 4B hair is beautiful, but so too is 4C hair. The perception that 4C hair is unmanageable is an ill-conceived as 4C hair can be as equally manageable as that if 4B hair. I’ll even go as far to say that 4C hair has a connotation of the post colonial, nappy hair and that 4B hair is seen as somewhat more superior and closer to the more dominant power. It’s as if we are looking at the dark-skinned/ light-skinned debate, but with hair instead.
So why the rant? I’m just tired of 4C hair not getting the airplay that it’s sister counterpart gets. As if having 4C hair is a bad thing. After spending so much time trying to achieve the curl definition that is not my own, realising that this is a somewhat admission that my curls, my hair is not good enough. Twist outs, bantu knots and the rest are great every now and then, but when you have a woman who tries to do this every other day, you wonder why that is the case. Why the heck are we so bothered about curl definition? Isn’t just simply having good hair not good enough? This is the end of the rant of hair from me for now. Maybe I am being über sensitive about this case, there are more pressing things in the world to be concerned about, but I refuse to ever believe that my short 4C is not as good as that the 4B hair of the women who I see on YouTube. Not anymore.